Smoke and Mirrors

My eyes are red. When I first wake up, during the day, whether I stay inside or go outside, my eyes are red. And feel puckered and dry all the time. Even using my thick, made for chronic dry eyes, mucous-like eye drops offers little relief to this situation. My throat feels coated with a fine layer of burning ash and dust. My nose is so dry it keeps bleeding (but not badly enough to drip, thank goodness). My skin is dry to the touch and any moisture provided it (shower, lotion) is absorbed at an astonishing rate.

Upon leaving this morning for work, the sky was a an orangish-burnt sienna color. Since the Santa Ana Winds have died down, which is great for the fire fighting, the smoke, haze, and ash are all staying put right over Orange County. I can only imagine how bad the same situation is in San Diego County, where the fires are bigger and burning much more right now. The air quality is so bad that they have closed a number of schools throughout the region for health reasons.

My car was coated with a fine layer of ash this morning -- and it spent the night inside my closed garage. I can only imagine how bad that would have been had it not been inside.

I am tired. Everyone I know is fatigued at an alarming rate. We all think it has something to do with hot, dry weather and the ash. Likely also the stress of all the constant news reports and need to know if you have to evacuate your area; plus worry over friends and colleagues.

The news talks about the toll on those who have lost their homes. I'm starting to wonder about the long term toll on those of us who have been breathing the air, searing our lungs, and drinking food and water that may be laced with the ash, soot, and chemicals that all are stirred up and put into the air by these fires. We have likely received 10x, 20x, 100x the pollution we normally would have breathed in the last 7 days. What will those effects be in 2, 5, or 10 years down the line?